Parallels 4 to tout OS X Server VM, dual-core, new interface

Competition between virtualization software developers is about to kick into overdrive thanks to the ongoing development Parallels Desktop 4, which people familiar with the update say will significantly expand hardware and software support as well as deliver a redesigned interface.

Those aware of the changes say the new release will be Parallels' first to make good on promise made in early January that it would enable virtualization of Mac OS X Server on Macs already running the operating system, making use of a change in licensing terms with Leopard's release late last year that permits more than one copy to run at the same time.

Such features have been frequently requested by IT administrators, who on Linux and Windows have already been able to segregate individual apps away from the main operating system in the event of a crash or a security breach.

The move is just one of the steps Parallels is taking to keep up with and potentially outrun rival VMware, which unleashed 'experimental' support for virtualization of OS X Server earlier this week as part of its Fusion 2.0 virtualization product.

Parallels will also make a bid to challenge Fusion 2.0 in performance category, those people familiar with the update claim. A tweaked virtualization engine by itself should provide a speed boost, but the new Parallels 4.0 is also expected to add long-awaited support for assigning two CPU cores and up to 8GB of RAM to one virtual machine. Support for DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2 graphics is also present in early betas of the software.

In addition, Parallels is also working to support full power management with ACPI, or advanced configuration and power interface, which should translate into smoother shut downs and suspensions of the virtual machine.

Just as important may be a planned redesign of the interface, people familiar with the software say. Users of 4.0 will reportedly have access to a simple list of virtual machines that includes favorite apps on each machine. They'll also see the settings for the virtual machine at any time and customize the toolbar to have favorite actions show up as buttons. Business-class users should likewise have more control with command-line access through Terminal.

The virtual machine configuration.

Parallels 4's toolbar (top) and status bar (bottom).

The option to enable two cores per virtual machine.

Those familiar with Parallels' plans also allude to a handful of useful but more generalized improvements, such as support for 2TB virtual machines, the ability to resize some virtual machines, and 64-bit guest operating systems.

When the upgrade will be released to the public isn't clear, though the early news is arriving the same week that VMware's shipped Fusion 2.0, which delivers on much of the same feature set.

As a fairly new Parallels customer, what is their typical upgrade pricing?

They are really just playing catch-up to the current VMWare release. I like both products, VMWare seems to be more stable for Windows XP, I have had instances of a Parallels Windows VM just dying, not able to complete the startup process, and no real way to correct the issue.

On the positive side, Parallels did seem a bit more resource friendly, although the latest VMWare seems to have enhanced performance.

Now for this server virtualization feature Apple should be buying this company. That's were corporations are heading more and more, virtulized servers, to save on the electric bills at the data centers. My company, with 1200+ servers, is going that route on a 10th of our systems by the end of this year.

So can either Parallels or Fusion be hacked to install a non-server version of OS X. There are things I'd like to test in OS X which I don't need Server for and which may false answers since the builds won't be completely the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacTel

Now for this server virtualization feature Apple should be buying this company. That's were corporations are heading more and more, virtulized servers, to save on the electric bills at the data centers. My company, with 1200+ servers, is going that route on a 10th of our systems by the end of this year.

Hmm... I'm not so sure that buying one of these companies would be good for Apple. Do they sell enough volume to make it worthwhile? If they bought one then it could effectively destroy the other's product when right now their is great competition between them that benefits Mac users, and transitively Apple.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

Yes, it does. The only way to get around installing Windows is to use a WINE implementation, like CrossOver. Depending on what you need Windows for, CrossOver may be ideal as it will use less resources than having to run an app inside Windows inside an app on OS X.

They are really just playing catch-up to the current VMWare release. I like both products, VMWare seems to be more stable for Windows XP, I have had instances of a Parallels Windows VM just dying, not able to complete the startup process, and no real way to correct the issue.

On the positive side, Parallels did seem a bit more resource friendly, although the latest VMWare seems to have enhanced performance.

My 2 cents.

Parallels files are cryptically named and scattered all over the Extensions folder, like Windows "DLL Hell". Has this changed with the new version?

Fusion hides settings from users and forces users to manually edit config files in order to change certain settings, such as renaming a VM. Has this changed with the new version?

Neither of these applications display a Num Lock indicator in the status bar. This feature is needed because Apple keyboards do not have a Num Lock light, so it's not always obvious what the numeric keypad is going to do in these applications.

I'm presently running Win XP via a 100 MB boot camp partition. Would I have to wipe out this whole partition including XP OS and all my app's and other programs to switch to this visualization appl. ????

Parallels is a breath of fresh air. It is robust and does what it does very well. It makes backing up a PC, sharing files, and printing a snap. Such a change from the VPC days. The new interface looks great.

As a fairly new Parallels customer, what is their typical upgrade pricing?

I'm interested in this too.

In particular - my brother is running Parallels v2. He mentioned a couple of days ago he wants to upgrade (he has Leopard, and v2 has problems). If he buys v3 now does he get a free upgrade? Should he wait?.

Fusion hides settings from users and forces users to manually edit config files in order to change certain settings, such as renaming a VM. Has this changed with the new version?

Neither of these applications display a Num Lock indicator in the status bar. This feature is needed because Apple keyboards do not have a Num Lock light, so it's not always obvious what the numeric keypad is going to do in these applications.

@Haggar

1. Yes indeedy, in VMware Fusion 2, you can rename a VM, add notes to it, and so forth right from the Virtual Machine Library.

Is it possible to transfer all files from a boot camp partition over to Fusion or Parallel and then delete the boot camp partition????

@dmgceo

VMware Fusion 2 plays well with Boot Camp in two ways:

1. You can run VMware Fusion 2 right on top of it, letting your run your Boot Camp partition side by side with your Mac. But you don't get "full virtual" features like the ability to suspend/resume your VM and snapshot it.

2. You can actually import your Boot Camp partition right from VMware Fusion 2. Essentially, you can suck in the Boot Camp partition to run as a virtual machine, which is nice because you get access to things like Suspend/Resume, Snapshots, and AutoProtect.

This is cool because if you assigned, say, 15gb to your Boot Camp partition, but only are using 5gb, that other 10gb is unavailable. If you suck it into a VM, you can reclaim that space, because the VM is resident on your Mac partition.

Do you mean the caps lock light? I believe Haggar means the num lock that is common on PC keyboards which changes the functionality of the numeric keypad. But I don't think Mac keyboards are even capable of sending the right signals for the extra functionality PC keyboards have when numlock is turned off. Perhaps he would like a virtual numlock for some reason? I've never met a person that turns his numlock off in real life though.

Do you mean the caps lock light? I believe Haggar means the num lock that is common on PC keyboards which changes the functionality of the numeric keypad. But I don't think Mac keyboards are even capable of sending the right signals for the extra functionality PC keyboards have when numlock is turned off. Perhaps he would like a virtual numlock for some reason? I've never met a person that turns his numlock off in real life though.

The num lock key does have a light. On the MacBook Pro keyboard, anyway.

I've been on technical support for an hour now, after spending an hour yesterday trying to upgrade from 3 to 4.

I strongly recommend that anyone considering upgrading from 3 to 4 wait until they get this working. To make matters worse, I have to deal with these foreigners who speak lousy English, who can't hear (probably because they're crammed into a sweatshop), and they ask for all the same information I've just spent an hour giving them.

I HATE THEIR TECH SUPPORT.

If I had known I would never have wasted my money on this awful upgrade.

Uninstalling Parallels 4, talking to their *tier 2* guy... by tier 2, I think he's just at another desk. Knows not much more than I do about Parallels. Different accent, harder to understand... hasn't gotten me any farther yet.

He directed me to put in the Windows disk, which I did, and then to configure Parallels to start Windows from the disk... did that. Ran Windows, it crashes, check the settings, and Parallels has reset itself to use an image file rather than the Windows disk. Nice.

Client and Server *are* identical in every aspect of the kernel and OS. The differences are in what comes in addition to server and removal of some things that conflict (like personal file sharing).

So is there a way to tweak Parallels to allow virtualization of Tiger under Leopard? I've been using ViaVoice for OS X and have trained it on thousands of words unique to my very specialized area of work. ViaVoice breaks under Leopard on my MacBook Pro, although it runs well under Tiger. To dictate, I have to reboot into Tiger each time, and because I'm required to use FileVault for security reasons, I can't access most of my programs and data in the Leopard partition, so this is a royal pain.

I've managed to do it on a MacBook Pro - sort of - running 10.4.10 (using Tiger installer disks I bought from Apple for a late 2007 model MBP - it took some doing to get these, because mine came with Leopard and wasn't designed to run Tiger, but it runs perfectfully when installed on and booted from a separate partition) under VMware Fusion 2.0.1. However, audio doesn't work (interestingly, I can run ViaVoice anyway because I can connect to my Plantronics USB dictation headset directly) but performance varies unpredictably from very good to awful, and I'm only able to run it by resuming from a snapshot - i.e., I can't boot from a shutdown state.

Parallels may be faster than VMware and I think it supports audio on Leopard OS X Server, so I'd like to try that. As expected, when one tries to install a Mac OS other than OS X Server, though, it won't permit it. Doing so for me wouldn't violate copyright laws as I have a legal copy of Tiger purchased from Apple, and am running it on the same machine as I would if booted directly into Tiger.